Archive for March 13th, 2011

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.

NOW ARE THEY FURIOUS? The Attorney General of the Republic, still headed by Arturo Chavez Chavez, decided to conceal details of the investigation that began from the failed operation Fast and Furious, in which agents of the Office of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) deliberately allowed around two thousand high-caliber arms to enter Mexico in order, for the moment, to not generate more friction with the government of the United States. Nevertheless, what the agency decided to avoid in its official press release is that the investigations taking place in the Justice sub-offices of Legal and International Affairs has, among its objectives, to establish not only which criminal organizations received the armament, but also if US citizens committed crimes that could be penalized and tried in Mexican courts. They assure us that this is one of the objectives. And, in face of the gravity of the issue, they say that there are instructions which, if a crime exists, will be carried out against whoever it may be so that the case doesn’t go unpunished and that, if it is proved that ATF agents actually permitted the illegal traffic, it will be sought to bring them before Mexican justice.

(Federal District) The PRI will this week seek an amendment to the Federal Police Act to create a group to combat human trafficking of arms and drugs across borders. The initiative states that the border police will be called a body of the Federal Police under the Director of Public Prosecutions in ports, airports, customs and border areas, which specialize in the prevention, surveillance, pursuit and investigation of various crimes. The draft provides that the Border Police will monitor the operation of the 49 customs ports of the country, since “they are strategic border points, ports and airports, and which have become points of operation of various criminal groups. The document adds that criminal groups have expanded their activities beyond drug trafficking for years and also specialize in weapons trafficking, alien smuggling, trafficking, murder, forgery, among other crimes. In addition, the border police check if the Mexicans that were repatriated from the United States have criminal records, or arrest warrants pending execution. This is to avoid them being integrated into organized crime in Mexico. “The border police must be prepared to prevent terrorist acts and to prevent flow of illegal migrants from the southern border,” says the initiative made by President of the Board of San Lazaro, Jorge Carlos Ramírez Marín, and the Legal deputy coordinator of the PRI, Arturo Zamora Jiménez. In an interview, Zamora said that arms trafficking is the second largest crime committed in Mexico by organized crime and represents 15% of federal crimes committed throughout the country. He added that if the reform is approved, our country would have a specialized, trained and equipped force with the tools necessary to effectively combat these crimes, which gravely affect the public and national security.

Rear Admiral Carlos Tello Aliaga , Chief of Command VRAE , was injured last Friday when the helicopter in which he was traveling was shot by suspected narco-terrorists. Also wounded was an artillery officer. The incident occurred Friday at 3 pm in the high Huachocolpa forest that borders Junin Huancavelica and Ayacucho. In Huancayo, it was reported the attack would have been led by ‘Alipio’, the Shining Path leader who frequently uses Huachocolpa route for transporting drugs, said the Admiral.http://elcomercio.pe/peru/726973/noticia-narcoterroristas-hirieron-almirante-vrae______________________

La Prensa (Honduras) 3/12/2011

An 80% decrease in dengue cases

(San Pedro Sula, Honduras) From March 2010, dengue cases dropped from 580 to 120, a drop in the spread of the virus of 80 per cent. Julio Rodriguez, director of the Metropolitan Region of Health, reported that in the first nine weeks of this year they have managed to get control. “They have confirmed six cases across the country, but none of them in San Pedro Sula,” said the doctor. To this date, in 2010 there were four cases in San Pedro Sula and about 25 nationwide. “We are working on prevention, eliminating breeding sites and spraying with the help of foundations and health centers,” he said.http://tinyurl.com/6dml6v9______________________

El Nuevo Herald (U.S.) 3/13/2011

Central America becomes fertile ground for Mexican drug traffickers

By KATHERINE CORCORAN / AP

On a warm day in late summer on the coast of El Salvador, more than 100 police were alerted by the intelligence services to inspect an abandoned sugar cane plantation and they unearthed two plastic barrels full of dollars. It took three days to count all the tickets for $100, $ 50 and $ 20. The total amount was $ 10 million. A week later they found a third barrel in the courtyard of a house in an exclusive neighborhood of San Salvador, with another 4.5 million dollars. While many questions remain, it is likely that the buried money is linked to Mexican drug cartels, which now operate almost at will in Central America. The fierce campaigns mounted by the governments of Mexico and Colombia with U.S. support that the cartels did move into a region where there’s corruption, there is little border control and local gangs offer their structures. The barrels were found on a ranch owned by two Guatemalans, one of which had links with the local gang leader linked to the Gulf cartel, who is serving 31 years in prison for drug trafficking in the United States. The signs are very clear of the possibility of using El Salvador as a place where you can launder money and use it as a way to transfer money to the South to pay for drugs that are bought,”said deputy Howard Cotto of the national police in an interview with AP. The seizures of cocaine have tripled between 2003 and 2008, according to a UN report on drugs. The murder rates in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, already the highest of any region of the world are increasing, partly by the increase in drug trafficking at the local level, officials said. While U.S. and Mexico are focused on fighting drug trafficking along their common border, the traffic flourishes in Guatemala, a country that does not produce weapons. There is evidence of a U.S. arms trafficking in reverse, from south to north, said a U.S. official who requested anonymity. We have no precise figures. What we know is happening and there seems to be random. Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes, who has close ties with the U.S. despite being the country’s first leftist leader, said that during Obama’s visit they will focus on the issue of poverty. Poverty and violence that led to a 13-year civil war in the 80’s and early 90’s, still persists and rural states and suburbs of the capital where the battles are fought today by gangs. The White House said that Obama, who will be in El Salvador on 22 and 23 March, will discuss ”bilateral and regional economy, clean energy initiatives for cooperation in public security.” Other Central American nations say safety is the priority and express amazement that the White House plan just a bilateral meeting. ”Everyone who has spent a decade working on regional cooperation were disappointed,” said former Vice President Eduardo Stein of Guatemala. ”They washed their hands.” Central America has always been a transit area for drugs coming from Colombia to the U.S. and a hiding place for Mexican drug lords. A key figure, that would be found guilty of the murder of DEA agent Enrique ”Kiki” Camarena in Mexico in 1985, was arrested in Costa Rica. The head of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin ”El Chapo” Guzman, was captured near the border between Mexico and Guatemala in 1993. But the flow of drugs and money was intensified with the tightened security measures in the U.S. after the attacks of September 11, 2001 and even more so when the Mexican government began a strong campaign against drug trafficking in 2006. The violence escalated with the arrival of the Zetas to Central America in 2008, almost at the same time that the cartels in Mexico began to pay their employees with drugs instead of money, sparking a boom in drug sales and increase in street violence. Today, anyone that wants to do any drug business in Guatemala must pay a fee to the Zetas, according to Leonel Ruiz, a federal prosecutor in charge of drug cases, whose work has increased 50 percent over five years. The Guatemalan government recently ended a siege of two months of the northern state of Alta Verapaz, near the border with Mexico, which is a major route for smuggling drugs from Honduras to Mexico. There, the Zetas were circulating through the streets with rifles and armored vehicles and control the comings and goings of people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We have room for but one flag, the American flag…and we have room for but
one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
~Theodore Roosevelt 1919